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WrestleMania XXVI
WrestleMania XXVI was the twenty-sixth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on March 28, 2010 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. This was the seventieth pay-per-view and the final event held in the history of WWEbrand. WrestleMania XXVI ''was a joint-promotion event, featuring performers from all three WWE brands: Raw, SmackDown and ECW. Ten matches were featured on the event's card (nine were advertised), which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The first of these matches was the main event of the Raw brand for the WWE Championship between champion John Cena and Triple H. The main event of the SmackDown brand was a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship, with Randy Orton defending the title against both Edge and Batista. In the main event of the ECW brand, ECW Champion Christian defended his title against Jeff Hardy in what was advertised as the final ECW Championship match before the brand ceased two days later. An interpromotional main event was held between Raw's Bobby Lashley and The Big Show from SmackDown, with the appearances of Donald Trump, Vince McMahon and special guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin. Two other matches from the Raw brand are featured bouts: Sting vs. Shawn Michaels in Sting's last match; and The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho. Featured matches background ''WrestleMania ''featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots and storylines that were played out on ''Raw, ECW, SmackDown and WWE Superstars ''- WWE's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were from WWE's Raw, ECW and SmackDown brands - a storyline division in which WWE employees are assinged to a television program of the same name. 'WWE Champion John Cena vs. Triple H' At the 2010 ''Royal Rumble, Triple H won the increased forty-man Royal Rumble match to earn a main event championship match at WrestleMania XXVI, having the option of any of the three world championships to challenge for. The following night on Raw, Triple H announced that he would challenge John Cena at WrestleMania ''for the WWE Championship, making it their very first singles match against eachother. On the February 15 edition of ''Raw, Cena and Triple H had the official contract signing for their match, presided over by Raw General Manager William Regal. Following the signings, Triple H assaulted Cena with a right hand to the eye. Cena appeared on the following week's Raw ''with a black eye as a result. Following Triple H's win over Bobby Lashley, Cena returned the favour and hit Triple H over the head with his WWE Championship belt. On the March 1 ''Raw, Regal announced that Cena and Triple H would both select eachother's opponents for the night in "Pick Your Poison". Both men lost their respective matches, Cena to The Big Show, and Triple H to Shelton Benjamin, with the latter due to Cena's interference. Not willing to risk the WrestleMania ''main event being ruined, Regal initiated a "no physical confrontation" policy between the two wrestlers, losing their main event status if they disobey the ruling. During the March 22 edition of ''Raw, Regal forced Cena and Triple H to team up in a tag team match against Ted DiBiase and MVP, which they won. Due to an agreement between the general managers to create hype for the pay-per-view, for the last two weeks leading up to WrestleMania, Superstars and Divas were able to compete on all shows. This led to a Six-man tag team match booked by SmackDown General Manager Bret Hart with Cena and Triple H on opposing sides. With the policy still in place, whenever Cena was tagged into the match, Triple H had to leave it and vice versa. 'World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. Batista (Triple Threat match)' Due to Triple H selecting to challenge for Raw's WWE Championship, both SmackDown and ECW were left without an automatic main event set. SmackDown General Manager Bret Hart determined that the challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship would be determined in an Elimination Chamber match to be held at the SmackDown-branded Bragging Rights ''pay-per-view on February 21. Batista would defeat Edge, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Kane and Carlito in the match to become the number one contender for the title, and would face Randy Orton at ''WrestleMania XXVI. On the following episode of SmackDown, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, enraged that Hart was seen showing nemesis Donald Trump around WWE's headquarters in Stamford, CT. decided to change Hart's plans for the pay-per-view if the last eliminated wrestler in the Elimination Chamber, Edge, could defeat Batista on SmackDown, then he would be added to the match at WrestleMania. With Randy Orton revealing himself as the special guest referee, Edge would beat Batista and the match was forced to change into a Triple Threat match. Orton and Edge appeared to have made an agreement that they would take out Batista first in the match and it would be left between those two. However, the alliance would not last long as Hart booked Orton and Batista in a Handicap match against Edge, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder on the March 5 edition of SmackDown. Orton and Edge would meet in a singles match on the March 12 edition of SmackDown, with Batista as the special guest referee. Despite Orton picking up the win, Batista would give both of his opponents Batista Bombs, walking back to the stage with Orton's World Heavyweight Championship belt. The following week in a singles match between Batista and Orton, the match did not properly get underway as Orton left the ring and was counted out. The two challengers would meet in the interpromotional Six-man tag team match on the final episode of SmackDown ''before the pay-per-view as Batista, John Cena and Jeff Hardy fought Edge, Christian and Triple H to a no contest. 'ECW Champion Christian vs. Jeff Hardy' For the ECW Championship at ''WrestleMania XXVI, ECW General Manager Tiffany Terrell announced that similar to last year's challenger for the ECW title at WrestleMania 25, this year's would be determined via the Elimination Chase series, a series of matches in which the wrestler that was pinned or forced to submit would be eliminated from the competition. The winner would face Christian for the title at WrestleMania. In the first match on the February 2 edition of ECW, Mr. Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, Evan Bourne, Mark Henry, Chavo Guerrero and Hurricane Helms competed in a Six Pack Challenge, won by Kennedy. As Guerrero was pinned in the match, he was eliminated. The following week in a Five-man match, Hardy won the match, eliminating Mark Henry from the series. In a Fatal Four-Way match on February 16, relative newcomer Evan Bourne, to the shock of the ECW roster and the audience, won the match, eliminating Hurricane from the Elimination Chase. Tiffany announced that the three remaining wrestlers plus the ECW Champion Christian would compete in a tag team match at Live For The Moment, a television special on Syfy reminiscent of the Extreme Offerings held in 2007-8 on NBC by the ECW brand. At Live For The Moment, Hardy and Bourne would defeat Christian and Kennedy. The following week on ECW, Kennedy would be eliminated in a Triple Threat match. In the finals of the Chase on March 9, Hardy would defeat Bourne to become the number one contender for the ECW Championship. It was also on this edition of ECW ''where Vince McMahon announced that after ''WrestleMania, the ECW brand would be disbanded, making the match at the pay-per-view the final ECW Championship match in history. The upcoming match took a personal turn as Christian appeared on the March 15 edition of Raw ''during Jeff's brother Matt Hardy's match with John Morrison. Christian would brutally assault Matt, resulting in a broken collarbone. With Matt being out of action indefinitely, Jeff sought out revenge and seeking sympathy from Tiffany, who made a tag team match featuring Christian and The Gatecrashers versus Hardy, Hurricane Helms and Chris Masters on the March 16 ''ECW. Hardy would bloody Christian during the match. On the penultimate edition of ECW, Christian invited Jeff Hardy on to his chat show segment called The Peep Show. As Hardy made his way to the ring, the host was nowhere to be found until he came out flanked by security. Angered by Christian replaying his assault on Matt, Jeff tried to reach Christian and was held back by his security, followed by a shot with his title belt, laying out the challenger. 'Bobby Lashley vs. The Big Show (Battle of the Billionaires match with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest referee)' On January 18, it was announced on WWE.com and on Raw ''that business magnate and television personality Donald Trump would appear on the January 25 edition of ''Raw ''to promote the new season of NBC's ''The Apprentice. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon ordered Raw General Manager William Regal to buy the best of goods for his "good friend" Trump coming to Raw. When Trump arrived, he was welcomed warmly by McMahon and the WWE fans, but only seemed to be interested in the latter, leaving McMahon in the dark. When Trump went out to the live crowd in the arena, before he could talk, the arena lights went out and the house microphone was switched off, humiliating Trump in the ring. The following week on Raw, McMahon explained his actions, as Trump and The Apprentice ''were off the air, he had become NBC and USA Network's "go-to guy for entertainment", having made Raw the number one brand on any NBC branded networks. He offered Trump to come to the following week's ''Raw ''to bury the hatchet. Trump appeared, however, only on-screen, having paid the production crew to give him a live feed where he signalled for money to fall from the arena roof, this time embarrasing McMahon. Trump went on to challenge McMahon to a fight, in which McMahon declined and said he had a better idea. On the February 15 edition of ''Raw, McMahon announced that he had issued a counter challenge to Trump for WrestleMania XXVI ''entitled "The Battle of the Billionaires", where both McMahon and Trump would select a wrestler from any brand to represent them in the match. McMahon then introduced his representative, a "new and improved" Big Show, who had been missing since the night after ''Royal Rumble, when he was talked down to by McMahon. McMahon made it clear to ring announcer Justin Roberts that his name was now specifically "The Big Show". The Big Show would show his dominance over the next few weeks, defeating the likes of Hardcore Holly, Chris Jericho and John Cena, and battling The Hart Dynasty in a Handicap match at Bragging Rights. On the March 1 edition of Raw, Donald Trump returned to Raw ''and announced that he had selected former World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley as his representative at ''WrestleMania XXVI. The following week, to show he can provide better entertainment than Trump, McMahon held his own beauty pageant called "Miss WWE Universe" (a play on Trump's "Miss Universe") judged by McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Tazz, with Maryse being picked the winner. Post-contest, McMahon challenged Trump to have a match next week on Raw. McMahon made an appearance four days later on SmackDown, announcing that Trump had accepted his challenge, however, come Raw ''it was an imposter Donald Trump losing easily to McMahon. McMahon announced that he wanted Trump to put his Trump Organisation conglomerate on the line, to which Trump replied that he wanted WWE's Raw brand if Lashley won. Also, it was announced that the WWE Board of Directors had assigned a special guest referee for the match in Stone Cold Steve Austin. On the last edition of ''Raw ''before ''WrestleMania, Lashley, with Trump, defeated Mark Henry. Post-match, McMahon slapped Trump, once again leaving him humiliated. 'Sting vs. Shawn Michaels (Farewell match)' Following his win over Randy Orton after a long absence at Survivor Series in November 2009, Sting wrestled another two matches against MVP and Shelton Benjamin before taking another leave. When he returned on the February 8 edition of Raw ''with a win over Jack Swagger, Sting announced that he would be retiring from active competition this year, and wanted to have one more match at ''WrestleMania XXVI, and wanted to issue a challenge to one of his greatest opponents, yet they have never had a singles match on a large stage, Shawn Michaels. Michaels, with a historic record of WrestleMania ''matches accepted the challenge on the following week's edition of ''Raw, hoping to show the younger talent in WWE how they both reached the top of their profession. Sting and Michaels showed their friendship by teaming up on that same edition of Raw, defeating Matt Morgan and John Morrison. Over the next few weeks, vignettes were shown of Sting's career and a series of short interviews with Jim Ross were played detailing his life and work. Michaels told Ross that he felt pressure to give Sting one last great match, regardless of the result. During the last two weeks of Sting's career, he and Michaels were both the focus of ECW wrestler Mr. Kennedy, who thought giving someone time on WrestleMania ''to retire was meaningless, resulting in a Sweet Chin Music superkick from Michaels and Sting placing Kennedy in the Scorpion Deathlock submission. 'The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho' After winning the Intercontinental Championship on the February 1 edition of ''Raw ''and defending it the following week against the former champion John Morrison, Jericho appeared to look unimpressed with his recent win. On the February 15 edition of ''Raw, Jericho had argued that he had done everything there is to do in WWE, including winning all three world titles; a record setting Intercontinental Champion and main evented WrestleMania. However, he had not challenged The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Following Undertaker's match that same night against Ted DiBiase, Jericho appeared again on the stage and challenged him to a match at WrestleMania, telling him that the undefeated streak is the next "holy grail" on his list of accomplishments he wants, to which the Undertaker accepted. 'Money in the Bank Ladder match qualifying matches' Prior to the sixth annual Money in the Bank Ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI, qualifying matches were held on WWE's television programs to determine who would be part of the match. Event ''Bottom Line Prior to the pay-per-view, the pre-show ''Bottom Line ''featured a Battle Royal featuring wrestlers from all three brands. The match was originally billed as a twenty six man match, however, Ezekiel Jackson and Sheamus, who was boycotting ''WrestleMania ''due to losing his Money in the Bank qualifying match, were late entrants into the match. Finlay eliminated Carlito last to win the match. As the pay-per-view went live, singer Fantasia Barrino performed the annual rendition of ''America the Beautiful. 'Match results' *The other participants in the Battle Royal were: The Great Khali, Daniel Bryan, Santino Marella, Jamie Noble, Kenny Dykstra, Paul London, Hardcore Holly, Jesse, Festus, Jack Swagger, Brian Kendrick, Ezekiel Jackson, JTG, Shad, Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, Mike Knox, Jimmy Wang Yang, Hurricane Helms, Mike Mizanin, Cody Rhodes, Chavo Guerrero, Mark Henry, Chris Masters and Sheamus. *Martin "cashed in" his Money in the Bank briefcase to get an impromptu title match. Category:WrestleMania Category:Pay-per-view events Category:Interpromotional events